Energy storage device, systems and methods for monitoring and performing diagnostics on batteries

ABSTRACT

A battery monitor circuit, systems and methods are disclosed. The battery monitor circuit may comprise a voltage sensor, a temperature sensor, a processor for receiving a monitored voltage signal from the voltage sensor, for receiving a monitored temperature signal from the temperature sensor, and for generating voltage data and temperature data based on the monitored voltage signal and the monitored temperature signal, an antenna, and a transmitter. The battery monitor circuit may be configured for wirelessly communicating the voltage data and the temperature data to a remote device, via the antenna. In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit is configured to be located external to the battery and wired electrically to the battery.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to, and the benefit of: U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/538,622 filed on Jul. 28, 2017entitled “ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE, SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING ANDPERFORMING DIAGNOSTICS ON POWER DOMAINS”; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/659,929 filed on Apr. 19, 2018 entitled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR MONITORING BATTERY PERFORMANCE”; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/660,157 filed on Apr. 19, 2018 entitled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR ANALYSIS OF MONITORED TRANSPORTATION BATTERY DATA”; and U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/679,648 filed on Jun. 1, 2018entitled “DETERMINING THE STATE OF CHARGE OF A DISCONNECTED BATTERY”.The contents of each of the foregoing applications are herebyincorporated by reference for all purposes (except for any subjectmatter disclaimers or disavowals, and except to the extent that theincorporated material is inconsistent with the express disclosureherein, in which case the language in this disclosure controls).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring of energy storagedevices.

BACKGROUND

Lead acid energy storage devices are prevalent and have been used in avariety of applications for well over 100 years. In some instances,these energy storage devices have been monitored to assess a conditionof the energy storage device. Nevertheless, these prior art monitoringtechniques typically are complex enough and sufficiently costly as tolimit their use, and to limit the amount of data that is obtained,particularly in low value remote applications. For example, there isgenerally insufficient data about the history of a specific energystorage device over the life of its application. Moreover, in smallnumbers, some energy storage devices are coupled to sensors to collectdata about the energy storage system, but this is not typical of largenumbers of devices and/or in geographically dispersed systems. Often thelimited data obtained via prior art monitoring is insufficient tosupport analysis, actions, notifications and determinations that mayotherwise be desirable. Similar limitations exist for non-lead-acidenergy storage devices. In particular, these batteries, due to theirhigh energy and power have entered various new mobile applications thatare not suitable for traditional monitoring systems. Accordingly, newdevices, systems and methods for monitoring energy storage devices (andbatteries in particular) remain desirable, for example for providing newopportunities in managing one or more energy storage devices, includingin diverse and/or remote geographic locations.

SUMMARY

In an example embodiment, a battery monitor circuit for monitoring abattery is located external to the battery and wired electrically to thebattery. The battery monitor circuit comprises: a voltage sensor forconnecting electrically to the battery for monitoring a voltage betweena positive terminal and a negative terminal of the battery. The batterycomprises a single monobloc or a plurality of monoblocs that areelectrically connected in series or parallel, and each monobloccomprises at least one electrochemical cell. The battery monitor circuitfurther comprises a temperature sensor for monitoring a temperature ofthe battery, a processor for receiving a monitored voltage signal fromthe voltage sensor, for receiving a monitored temperature signal fromthe temperature sensor, for processing the monitored voltage signal andthe monitored temperature signal, and for generating voltage data andtemperature data based on the monitored voltage signal and the monitoredtemperature signal, and a memory for storing the voltage data and thetemperature data. The voltage data represents the voltage between thepositive terminal and the negative terminal of the battery, and thetemperature data represents a temperature of the battery. The batterymonitor circuit further comprises an antenna, and a transmitter forwirelessly communicating the voltage data and the temperature data to aremote device via the antenna.

In another example embodiment, an intelligent energy storage systemcomprises a plurality of batteries, each battery electrically connectedto a respective battery monitor circuit disposed externally to thebattery. A first portion of the plurality of batteries are remotelydispersed from a second portion of the plurality of batteries, and theplurality of batteries are associated with at least one remote devicefor remotely receiving, via wireless data transmission, voltage data andtemperature data from each of the plurality of batteries. Theintelligent energy storage system further comprises a remote display forreceiving data, information, and notifications from the remote deviceand for providing notifications associated with the plurality ofbatteries based on analysis of the voltage data and the temperature datareceived by the remote device from the first portion of the plurality ofbatteries and the second portion of the plurality of batteries.

In another example embodiment, a method of remotely monitoring a batterycomprises sensing, using a battery monitor circuit disposed externallyto the battery and coupled to a positive terminal and a negativeterminal of the battery, a voltage of the battery with a voltage sensor;recording the voltage and a timestamp for the voltage in a storagemedium of the battery monitor circuit; sensing, via a temperature sensorof the battery monitor circuit, a temperature of the battery; recordingthe temperature and a timestamp for the temperature in the storagemedium; generating, using a processor of the battery monitor circuit,voltage data and temperature data based on the recorded voltage and therecorded temperature; and wirelessly transmitting, using a transceiverof the battery monitor circuit, the voltage data, the temperature data,the voltage timestamp, and the temperature timestamp recorded in thestorage medium (collectively, “battery operating data”) to a remotedevice.

The contents of this section are intended as a simplified introductionto the disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of any claim.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a monobloc connected to a battery monitor circuit, inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a battery comprising multiple monoblocs, with thebattery connected to a battery monitor circuit, in accordance withvarious embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates a method of monitoring a battery in accordance withvarious embodiments;

FIG. 4A illustrates a battery monitoring system, in accordance withvarious embodiments;

FIG. 4B illustrates a battery operating history matrix having columnsrepresenting a range of voltage measurements, and rows representing arange of temperature measurements, in accordance with variousembodiments; and

FIG. 4C illustrates a battery having a battery monitor circuit andcoupled to a load and/or to a power supply, and in communicativeconnection with various local and/or remote electronic systems, inaccordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description shows embodiments by way of illustration,including the best mode. While these embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice theprinciples of the present disclosure, it should be understood that otherembodiments may be realized and that logical, mechanical, chemical,and/or electrical changes may be made without departing from the spiritand scope of principles of the present disclosure. Thus, the detaileddescription herein is presented for purposes of illustration only andnot of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of the methoddescriptions may be executed in any suitable order and are not limitedto the order presented.

Moreover, for the sake of brevity, certain sub-components of individualcomponents and other aspects of the system may not be described indetail herein. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical couplings may be present in apractical system, for example a battery monitoring system. Suchfunctional blocks may be realized by any number of suitable componentsconfigured to perform specified functions.

Principles of the present disclosure improve the operation of a battery,for example by eliminating monitoring components such as a currentsensor which can drain a battery of charge prematurely. Moreover,principles of the present disclosure improve the operation of variouscomputing devices, such as a mobile communications device and/or abattery monitor circuit, in numerous ways, for example: reducing thememory utilized by a battery monitor circuit via compact storage ofbattery history information in a novel matrix-like database, thusreducing manufacturing expense, operating current draw, and extendingoperational lifetime of the battery monitor circuit; facilitatingmonitoring and/or control of multiple monoblocs via a single mobilecommunications device, thus improving efficiency and throughput; andreducing the amount of data transmitted across a network linking one ormore batteries and a remote device, thus freeing up the network to carryother transmitted data and/or to carry data of relevance more quickly,and also to significantly reduce communications costs.

Additionally, principles of the present disclosure improve the operationof devices coupled to and/or associated with a battery, for example acellular radio base station, an electric forklift, an e-bike, and/or thelike.

Yet further, application of principles of the present disclosuretransform and change objects in the real world. For example, as part ofan example algorithm, lead sulfate in a lead-acid monobloc is caused toconvert to lead, lead oxide, and sulfuric acid via application of acharging current, thus transforming a partially depleted lead-acidbattery into a more fully charged battery. Moreover, as part of anotherexample algorithm, various monoblocs in a warehouse may be physicallyrepositioned, recharged, or even removed from the warehouse or replaced,thus creating a new overall configuration of monoblocs in the warehouse.

It will be appreciated that various other approaches for monitoring,maintenance, and/or use of energy storage devices exist. As such, thesystems and methods claimed herein do not preempt any such fields ortechniques, but rather represent various specific advances offeringtechnical improvements, time and cost savings, environmental benefits,improved battery life, and so forth. Additionally, it will beappreciated that various systems and methods disclosed herein offer suchdesirable benefits while, at the same time, eliminating a common,costly, power-draining component of prior monitoring systems—namely, acurrent sensor. Stated another way, various example systems and methodsdo not utilize, and are configured without, a current sensor and/orinformation available therefrom, in stark contrast to nearly all priorapproaches.

In an exemplary embodiment, a battery monitor circuit is disclosed. Thebattery monitor circuit may be configured to sense, record, and/or bywire or wirelessly communicate, certain information from and/or about abattery, for example date/time, voltage and temperature information froma battery.

In an exemplary embodiment, a monobloc is an energy storage devicecomprising at least one electrochemical cell, and typically a pluralityof electrochemical cells. As used herein, the term “battery” can mean asingle monobloc, or it can mean a plurality of monoblocs that areelectrically connected in series and/or parallel. A “battery” comprisinga plurality of monoblocs that are electrically connected in seriesand/or parallel is sometimes referred to in other literature as a“battery pack.” A battery may comprise a positive terminal and anegative terminal. Moreover, in various exemplary embodiments, a batterymay comprise a plurality of positive and negative terminals. In anexemplary embodiment, a battery monitor circuit is external to a batteryand connected to the battery, for example via a wired connection to thebattery terminal(s).

In an embodiment, a battery monitor circuit comprises various electricalcomponents, for example a voltage sensor, a temperature sensor, aprocessor for executing instructions, a memory for storing data and/orinstructions, an antenna, and a transmitter/receiver/transceiver. Insome exemplary embodiments, a battery monitor circuit may also include aclock, for example a real-time clock. Moreover, a battery monitorcircuit may also include positioning components, for example a globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver circuit.

In certain example embodiments, a battery monitor circuit may comprise avoltage sensor configured with wired electrical connections to abattery, for monitoring a voltage between a positive terminal and anegative terminal (the terminals) of the battery. Moreover, the batterymonitor circuit may comprise a temperature sensor for monitoring atemperature of (and/or associated with) the battery. The battery monitorcircuit may comprise a processor for receiving a monitored voltagesignal from the voltage sensor, for receiving a monitored temperaturesignal from the temperature sensor, for processing the monitored voltagesignal and the monitored temperature signal, for generating voltage dataand temperature data based on the monitored voltage signal and themonitored temperature signal, and for executing other functions andinstructions.

In various example embodiments, the battery monitor circuit comprises amemory for storing data, for example voltage data and temperature datafrom (and/or associated with) a battery. Moreover, the memory may alsostore instructions for execution by the processor, data and/orinstructions received from an external device, and so forth. In anexemplary embodiment, the voltage data represents the voltage across theterminals of the battery, and the temperature data represents atemperature as measured at a particular location on and/or in thebattery. Yet further, the battery monitor circuit may comprise anantenna and a transceiver, for example for wirelessly communicatingdata, such as the voltage data and the temperature data to a remotedevice, and for receiving data and/or instructions. Alternatively, thebattery monitor circuit may include a wired connection to a remotedevice, for example for communicating the voltage data and thetemperature data to a remote device via the wired connection, and/or forreceiving data and/or instructions. In one exemplary embodiment, thebattery monitor circuit transmits the voltage data and the temperaturedata wirelessly via the antenna to the remote device. In anotherexemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit transmits the voltagedata and the temperature data via a wired connection to the remotedevice. The battery monitor circuit may also comprise a GPS receiver forreceiving global positioning signals. In an exemplary embodiment, thebattery monitor circuit is configured to be located external to thebattery and wired electrically to the battery.

The battery monitor circuit may be formed, in one exemplary embodiment,via coupling of various components to a circuit board. In an exemplaryembodiment, the battery monitor circuit further incorporates a real-timeclock. The real-time clock may be used, for example, for preciselytiming collection of voltage and temperature data for a battery. Asprimarily described herein, the battery monitor circuit may bepositioned external to the battery, and configured to sense an externaltemperature of the battery. The wired and/or wireless signals from thebattery monitor circuit can be the basis for various useful actions anddeterminations as described further herein.

With reference now to FIG. 1, in an exemplary embodiment, a battery 100may comprise a monobloc. The monobloc may, in an exemplary embodiment,be defined as an energy storage device. The monobloc comprises at leastone electrochemical cell (not shown). In various example embodiments,the monobloc comprises multiple electrochemical cells, for example inorder to configure the monobloc with a desired voltage and/or currentcapability. In various exemplary embodiments, the electrochemicalcell(s) are lead-acid type electrochemical cells. Although any suitablelead-acid electrochemical cells may be used, in one exemplaryembodiment, the electrochemical cells are of the absorbent glass mat(AGM) type design. In another exemplary embodiment, the lead-acidelectrochemical cells are of the gel type of design. In anotherexemplary embodiment, the lead-acid electrochemical cells are of theflooded (vented) type of design. However, it will be appreciated thatvarious principles of the present disclosure are applicable to variousbattery chemistries, including but not limited to nickel-cadmium (NiCd),nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion, lithium cobalt oxide, lithiumiron phosphate, lithium ion manganese oxide, lithium nickel manganesecobalt oxide, lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide, lithium titanate,lithium sulphur, rechargeable alkaline, and/or the like, and thus thediscussion herein directed to lead-acid batteries is provided by way ofillustration and not of limitation.

The battery 100 may have a housing 110. For example, the battery 100 maybe configured with a sealed monobloc lead-acid energy storage case madeof a durable material. The battery 100 may further comprise a positiveterminal 101 and a negative terminal 102. The sealed case may haveopenings through which the positive terminal 101 and negative terminal102 pass.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a battery 200 may comprise a plurality ofelectrically connected monoblocs, for example batteries 100. Themonoblocs in the battery 200 may be electrically connected in paralleland/or series. In an exemplary embodiment, the battery 200 may compriseat least one string of monoblocs. In an exemplary embodiment, a firststring may comprise a plurality of monoblocs electrically connected inseries. In another exemplary embodiment, a second string may comprise aplurality of monoblocs electrically connected in series. If there ismore than one string of monoblocs in the battery, the first, second,and/or additional strings may be electrically connected in parallel. Aseries/parallel connection of monoblocs may ultimately be connected to apositive terminal 201 and a negative terminal 202 of the battery 200,for example in order to achieve a desired voltage and/or currentcharacteristic or capability for battery 200. Thus, in an exemplaryembodiment, a battery 200 comprises more than one monobloc. A battery200 may also be referred to herein as a power domain.

The battery 200 may have a cabinet or housing 210. For example, thebattery 200 may comprise thermal and mechanical structures to protectthe battery and provide a suitable environment for its operation.

With reference now to FIGS. 1 and 2, in an example application, abattery 100/200 may be used for back-up power (also known as anuninterrupted power supply or UPS). Moreover, the battery 100/200 may beused in a cellular radio base station application and may be connectedto a power grid (e.g., to alternating current via a rectifier/inverter,to a DC microgrid, and/or the like). In another exemplary embodiment,the battery 100/200 is connected to an AC power grid and used forapplications such as peak shaving, demand management, power regulation,frequency response, and/or reactive power supply. In another exemplaryembodiment, the battery 100/200 is connected to a drive system providingmotive power to various vehicles (such as bicycles), industrialequipment (such as forklifts), and on-road light, medium and heavy-dutyvehicles. In other example applications, the battery 100/200 may be usedfor any suitable application where energy storage is desired on a shortor long-term basis. The battery 100/200 may be shipped in commerce as aunitary article, shipped in commerce with other monoblocs (such as on apallet with many other monoblocs), or shipped in commerce with othermonoblocs as part of a battery (for example, multiple batteries 100forming a battery 200).

In an exemplary embodiment, a battery monitor circuit 120 may beconnected to the battery 100. In an exemplary embodiment, a singlebattery monitor circuit 120 may be associated with a single monobloc(see battery 100), as illustrated in FIG. 1. In another exemplaryembodiment, a single battery monitor circuit 120 may be associated witha single battery 200, as illustrated in FIG. 2. In another exemplaryembodiment, more than one battery monitor circuit 120 is connected to asingle battery. For example, a first battery monitor circuit could beconnected to a first monobloc of the battery and a second batterymonitor circuit could be connected to a second monobloc of the battery.

The battery monitor circuit 120 may comprise a voltage sensor 130, atemperature sensor 140, a processor 150, a transceiver 160, an antenna170, and a storage medium or memory (not shown in the Figures). In anexemplary embodiment, a battery monitor circuit 120 is configured tosense a voltage and temperature associated with a monobloc or battery100/200, to store the sensed voltage and temperature in the memorytogether with an associated time of these readings, and to transmit thevoltage and temperature data (with their associated time) from thebattery monitor circuit 120 to one or more external locations.

In an exemplary embodiment, the voltage sensor 130 may be electricallyconnected by a wire to a positive terminal 101/201 of the battery100/200 and by a wire to a negative terminal 102/202 of the battery100/200. In an exemplary embodiment, the voltage sensor 130 isconfigured to sense a voltage of the battery 100/200. For example, thevoltage sensor 130 may be configured to sense the voltage between thepositive terminal 101/201 and the negative terminal 102/202. In anexemplary embodiment, the voltage sensor 130 comprises an analog todigital converter. However, any suitable device for sensing the voltageof the battery 100/200 may be used.

In an exemplary embodiment, the temperature sensor 140 is configured tosense a temperature measurement of the battery 100/200. In one exemplaryembodiment, the temperature sensor 140 may be configured to sense atemperature measurement at a location on or outside of the battery100/200. The location where the temperature measurement is taken can beselected such that the temperature measurement primarily reflects thetemperature of the battery 100/200 itself and only indirectly,secondarily, or less significantly is influenced by neighboringbatteries or environmental temperature. In various exemplaryembodiments, the battery monitor circuit 120 is configured to be locatedoutside of the battery 100/200, proximate to battery 100/200, attachedto the battery 100/200, electrically connected by wire to battery100/200, and/or configured to move with battery 100/200 so as to remainelectrically connected to the positive and negative terminals of thebattery 100/200.

In a different exemplary embodiment, the temperature sensor 140 may beconfigured to sense the temperature measurement at a location on orinside of the battery 100/200. The location where the temperaturemeasurement is taken can be selected such that the temperaturemeasurement primarily reflects the temperature of the battery 100/200itself and only indirectly, secondarily, or less significantly isinfluenced by neighboring monoblocs or environmental temperature. In anexemplary embodiment, the temperature sensor 140 comprises athermocouple, a thermistor, a temperature sensing integrated circuit, orthe like. In certain exemplary embodiments, the temperature sensor 140is embedded in the connection of battery monitor circuit 120 to thepositive or negative terminal of the battery 100/200, thus reducing thenumber of wired connections utilized to the battery 100/200 to only two.

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 comprises aprinted circuit board for supporting and electrically coupling thevoltage sensor, temperature sensor, processor, storage medium,transceiver, antenna, and/or other suitable components. In anotherexemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 includes a housing(not shown). The housing can be made of any suitable material forprotecting the electronics in the battery monitor circuit 120, forexample a durable plastic. The housing can be made in any suitable shapeor form factor. In an exemplary embodiment, the housing of batterymonitor circuit 120 is configured to be attached to the battery 100/200and may be secured, for example via adhesive, bolts, screws, clamps,and/or the like. Moreover, any suitable attachment device or method canbe used to keep the battery monitor circuit 120 constantly connected tothe battery 100/200. In another exemplary embodiment, the batterymonitor circuit 120 is not directly attached to the battery 100/200, butis positioned adjacent to the battery 100/200 such that it moves withthe battery. For example, battery monitor circuit 120 can be coupled tothe frame or body of an industrial fork lift containing battery 100/200.

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 furthercomprises a real-time clock capable of maintaining time referenced to astandard time such as Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), independent ofany connection (wired or wireless) to an external time standard such asa time signal accessible via a public network such as the Internet. Theclock is configured to provide the current time/date (or a relativetime) to the processor 150. In an exemplary embodiment, the processor150 is configured to receive the voltage and temperature measurement andto store, in the storage medium, the voltage and temperature dataassociated with the time that the data was sensed/stored. In anexemplary embodiment, the voltage, temperature and time data may bestored in a storage medium in the form of a database, a flat file, ablob of binary, or any other suitable format or structure. Moreover, theprocessor 150 may be configured to store additional data in a storagemedium in the form of a log. For example, the processor may log eachtime the voltage and/or temperature changes by a settable amount. In anexemplary embodiment, the processor 150 compares the last measured datato the most recent measured data, and logs the recent measured data onlyif it varies from the last measured data by at least this settableamount. The comparisons can be made at any suitable interval, forexample every second, every 5 seconds, every 10 seconds, every 30seconds, every minute, every 10 minutes, and/or the like. The storagemedium may be located on the battery monitor circuit 120, or may beremote. The processor 150 may further be configured to transmit(wirelessly or by wired connection) the logged temperature/voltage datato a remote device for additional analysis, reporting, and/or action. Inan exemplary embodiment, the remote device may be configured to stitchthe transmitted data log together with the previously transmitted logs,to form a log that is continuous in time. In this manner, the size ofthe log (and the memory required to store it) on the battery monitorcircuit 120 can be minimized. The processor 150 may further beconfigured to receive instructions from a remote device. The processor150 may also be configured to transmit the time, temperature and voltagedata off of the battery monitor circuit 120 by providing the data in asignal to the transceiver 160.

In another exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 isconfigured without a real-time clock. Instead, data is sampled on aconsistent time interval controlled by the processor 150. Each intervalis numbered sequentially with a sequence number to uniquely identify it.Sampled data may all be logged; alternatively, only data which changesmore than a settable amount may be logged. Periodically, when thebattery monitor circuit 120 is connected to a time standard, such as thenetwork time signal accessible via the Internet, the processor time issynchronized with real-time represented by the time standard. However,in both cases, the interval sequence number during which the data wassampled is also logged with the data. This then fixes the time intervalbetween data samples without the need for a real-time clock on batterymonitor circuit 120. Upon transmission of the data log to a remotedevice, the intervals are synchronized with the remote device (describedfurther herein), which maintains real time (e.g., UTC), for examplesynchronized over an Internet connection. Thus, the remote device isconfigured to provide time via synchronization with the battery monitorcircuit 120 and processor 150. The data stored at the battery monitorcircuit 120 or at the remote device may include the cumulative amount oftime a monobloc has spent at a particular temperature and/or voltage.The processor 150 may also be configured to transmit the cumulativetime, temperature and voltage data from the battery monitor circuit 120by providing the data in a signal to the transceiver 160.

In an exemplary embodiment, the time, temperature and voltage data for abattery may be stored in a file, database or matrix that, for example,comprises a range of voltages on one axis and a range of temperatures ona second axis, wherein the cells of this table are configured toincrement a counter in each cell to represent the amount of time abattery has spent in a particular voltage/temperature state (i.e., toform a battery operating history matrix). The battery operating historymatrix can be stored in the memory of battery monitor circuit 120 and/orin a remote device. For example, and with brief reference to FIG. 4B, anexample battery operating history matrix 450 may comprise columns 460,with each column representing a particular voltage or range of voltagemeasurements. For example, the first column may represent a voltagerange from 0 volts to 1 volt, the second column may represent a voltagerange from 1 volt to 9 volts, the third column may represent a voltagerange from 9 volts to 10 volts, and so forth. The battery operatinghistory matrix 450 may further comprise rows 470, with each rowrepresenting a particular temperature (+/−) or range of temperaturemeasurements. For example, the first row may represent a temperatureless than 10° C., the second row may represent a temperature range from10° C. to 20° C., the third row may represent a temperature range from20° C. to 30° C., and so forth. Any suitable scale and number ofcolumns/rows can be used. In an exemplary embodiment, the batteryoperating history matrix 450 stores a cumulative history of the amountof time the battery has been in each designated voltage/temperaturestate. In other words, the battery operating history matrix 450aggregates (or correlates) the amount of time the battery has been in aparticular voltage/temperature range. In particular, such a system isparticularly advantageous because the storage size does not increase (orincreases only a marginal amount) regardless of how long it recordsdata. The memory occupied by the battery operating history matrix 450 isoften the same size the first day it begins aggregatingvoltage/temperature data as its size years later or near a battery's endof life. It will be appreciated that this technique reduces, compared toimplementations that do not use this technique, the size of the memoryand the power required to store this data, thus significantly improvingthe operation of the battery monitor circuit 120 computing device.Moreover, battery voltage/temperature data may be transmitted to aremote device on a periodic basis. This effectively gates the data, and,relative to non-gating techniques, reduces the power required to storeand transmit data, reduces the size of the memory, and reduces the datatransmission time.

In an exemplary embodiment, the transceiver 160 may be any suitabletransmitter and/or receiver. For example, the transceiver 160 may beconfigured to up-convert the signal to transmit the signal via theantenna 170 and/or to receive a signal from the antenna 170 anddown-convert the signal and provide it to the processor 150. In anexemplary embodiment, the transceiver 160 and/or the antenna 170 can beconfigured to wirelessly send and receive signals between the batterymonitor circuit 120 and a remote device. The wireless transmission canbe made using any suitable communication standard, such as radiofrequency communication, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),Bluetooth Low Power (IPv6/6LoWPAN), a cellular radio communicationstandard (2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G, etc.), and/or the like. In an exemplaryembodiment, the wireless transmission is made using low power, shortrange signals, to keep the power drawn by the battery monitor circuitlow. In one exemplary embodiment, the processor 150 is configured towake-up, communicate wirelessly, and go back to sleep on a schedulesuitable for minimizing or reducing power consumption. This is desirableto prevent monitoring of the battery via battery monitor circuit 120from draining the battery prematurely. The battery monitor circuit 120functions, such as waking/sleeping and data gating functions, facilitateaccurately sensing and reporting the temperature and voltage datawithout draining the battery 100/200. In one exemplary embodiment, thebattery monitor circuit 120 is powered by the battery to which it iscoupled for monitoring. In other exemplary embodiments, the batterymonitor circuit 120 is powered by the grid or another power supply, forexample a local battery, a solar panel, a fuel cell, inductive RF energyharvesting circuitry, and/or the like.

In some exemplary embodiments, use of a Bluetooth protocol facilitates asingle remote device receiving and processing a plurality of signalscorrelated with a plurality of batteries (each equipped with a batterymonitor circuit 120), and doing so without signal interference. Thisone-to-many relationship between a remote device and a plurality ofbatteries, each equipped with a battery monitor circuit 120, is adistinct advantage for monitoring of batteries in storage and shippingchannels.

In an exemplary embodiment, battery monitor circuit 120 is locatedexternal to the battery. For example, battery monitor circuit 120 may beattached to the outside of battery 100/200. In another example, batterymonitor circuit 120 is located proximate to the battery 100/200, withthe voltage sensor 130 wired to the positive and negative terminals ofthe battery 100/200. In another exemplary embodiment, battery monitorcircuit 120 can be connected to the battery 100/200 so as to move withthe battery 100/200. For example, if battery monitor circuit 120 isconnected to the frame of a vehicle and the battery 100/200 is connectedto the frame of the vehicle, both will move together, and the voltageand temperature monitoring sensors 130 and 140 can continue to performtheir proper functions as the vehicle moves.

In an exemplary embodiment, temperature sensor 140 may be configured tosense a temperature of one of the terminals of a monobloc. In anotherexemplary embodiment, temperature sensor 140 may be configured tomeasure the temperature at a location or space between two monoblocs ina battery, or the air temperature in a battery containing multiplemonoblocs. In this manner, the temperature sensed by the battery monitorcircuit 120 may be more representative of the temperature of the battery100/200 and/or the electrochemical cells therein. Moreover, thetemperature sensor 140 may be located in any suitable location outsideof a monobloc or battery for sensing a temperature associated with themonobloc or battery.

Thus, with reference now to FIG. 3, an exemplary method 300 formonitoring a battery 100/200 comprising at least one electrochemicalcell comprises: sensing a voltage of the battery 100/200 with a voltagesensor 130 wired to the battery terminals (step 302), and recording thevoltage and the time that the voltage was sensed in a storage medium(step 304); sensing a temperature associated with battery 100/200 with awired temperature sensor 140 (step 306), and recording the temperatureand the time that the temperature was sensed in the storage medium (step308); and wirelessly transmitting the voltage, temperature and time datarecorded in the storage medium to a remote device (step 310). Thevoltage, temperature, and time data, together with other relevant data,may be assessed, analyzed, processed, and/or utilized as an input tovarious computing systems, resources, and/or applications (step 312). Inthis exemplary method, the voltage sensor 130, temperature sensor 140,and storage medium are located outside the battery 100/200 on a batterymonitor circuit 120. Moreover, method 300 may comprise taking variousactions in response to the voltage, temperature, and/or time data (step314), for example charging a battery, discharging a battery, removing abattery from a warehouse, replacing a battery with a new battery, and/orthe like.

With reference now to FIG. 4A, in an exemplary embodiment, the batterymonitor circuit 120 is configured to communicate data with a remotedevice. The remote device may be configured to receive data from aplurality of batteries, with each battery equipped with a batterymonitor circuit 120. For example, the remote device may receive datafrom individual batteries 100, each connected to a battery monitorcircuit 120. And in another exemplary embodiment, the remote device mayreceive data from individual batteries 200, each battery 200 connectedto a battery monitor circuit 120.

An example system 400 is disclosed for collecting and using dataassociated with each battery 100/200. In general, the remote device isan electronic device that is not physically part of the battery 100/200or the battery monitor circuit 120. The system 400 may comprise a localportion 410 and/or a remote portion 420. The local portion 410 comprisescomponents located relatively near the battery or batteries 100/200.“Relatively near,” in one exemplary embodiment, means within wirelesssignal range of the battery monitor circuit antenna. In another exampleembodiment, “relatively near” means within Bluetooth range, within thesame cabinet, within the same room, and the like. The local portion 410may comprise, for example, one or more batteries 100/200, a batterymonitor circuit 120, and optionally a remote device located in the localportion 410. Moreover, the local portion may comprise, for example, agateway. The gateway may be configured to receive data from each battery100/200. The gateway may also be configured to transmit instructions toeach battery 100/200. In an example embodiment, the gateway comprises anantenna for transmitting/receiving wirelessly at the gateway and/or forcommunicating with a locally located remote device 414. The locallylocated remote device 414, in an exemplary embodiment, is a smartphone,tablet, or other electronic mobile device. In another exemplaryembodiment, the locally located remote device 414 is a computer, anetwork, a server, or the like. In a further exemplary embodiment, thelocally located remote device 414 is an onboard vehicle electronicssystem. Yet further, in some embodiments, the gateway may function aslocally located remote device 414. Exemplary communications, for examplebetween gateway 412 and locally located remote device 414, may be viaany suitable wired or wireless approach, for example via a Bluetoothprotocol.

In some exemplary embodiments, the remote device is not located in thelocal portion 410, but is located in the remote portion 420. The remoteportion 420 may comprise any suitable back-end systems. For example, theremote device in the remote portion 420 may comprise a computer 424(e.g., a desk-top computer, a laptop computer, a server, a mobiledevice, or any suitable device for using or processing the data asdescribed herein). The remote portion may further comprise cloud-basedcomputing and/or storage services, on-demand computing resources, or anysuitable similar components. Thus, the remote device, in variousexemplary embodiments, may be a computer 424, a server, a back-endsystem, a desktop, a cloud system, or the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 may beconfigured to communicate data directly between battery monitor circuit120 and the locally located remote device 414. In one embodiment, thiscommunication can be by wire. For example, the wire communication can beby Ethernet cable, USB cable, twisted pair, and/or any other suitablewire and corresponding wired communication protocol. In anotherexemplary embodiment, the communication between the battery monitorcircuit 120 and the locally located remote device 414 can be a wirelesstransmission, such as via Bluetooth transmission. Moreover, any suitablewireless protocol can be used.

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 furthercomprises a cellular modem for communicating via a cellular network 418and other networks, such as the Internet, with the remote device. Forexample, data may be shared with the computer 424 or with the locallylocated remote device 414 via the cellular network 418. Thus, batterymonitor circuit 120 may be configured to send temperature and voltagedata to the remote device and receive communications from the remotedevice, via the cellular network 418 to other networks, such as theInternet, for distribution anywhere in the Internet connected world.

In various exemplary embodiments, the data from the local portion 410 iscommunicated to the remote portion 420. For example, data and/orinstructions from the battery monitor circuit 120 may be communicated toa remote device in the remote portion 420. In an exemplary embodiment,the locally located remote device 414 may communicate data and/orinstructions with the computer 424 in the remote portion 420. In anexemplary embodiment, these communications are sent over the Internet.The communications may be secured and/or encrypted, as desired, in orderto preserve the security thereof.

In an exemplary embodiment, these communications may be sent using anysuitable communication protocol, for example, via TCP/IP, WLAN, overEthernet, WiFi, cellular radio, or the like. In one exemplaryembodiment, the locally located remote device 414 is connected through alocal network by a wire to the Internet and thereby to any desiredremotely located remote device. In another exemplary embodiment, thelocally located remote device 414 is connected through a cellularnetwork, for example cellular network 418, to the Internet and therebyto any desired remotely located remote device.

In an exemplary embodiment, this data may be received at a server,received at a computer 424, stored in a cloud-based storage system, onservers, in databases, or the like. In an exemplary embodiment, thisdata may be processed by the battery monitor circuit 120, the locallylocated remote device 414, the computer 424, and/or any suitable remotedevice. Thus, it will be appreciated that processing and analysisdescribed as occurring in the battery monitor circuit 120 may also occurfully or partially in the battery monitor circuit 120, the locallylocated remote device 414, the computer 424, and/or any other remotedevice.

The remote portion 420 may be configured, for example, to display,process, utilize, or take action in response to, information regardingmany batteries 100/200 that are geographically dispersed from oneanother and/or that include a diverse or differing types, groups, and/orsets of batteries 100/200. The remote portion 420 can displayinformation about, or based on, specific individual battery temperatureand/or voltage. Thus, the system can monitor a large group of batteries100/200 located great distances from each other, but do so on anindividual battery level.

The remote portion 420 device may be networked such that it isaccessible from anywhere in the world. Users may be issued accesscredentials to allow their access to only data pertinent to batteriesowned or operated by them. In some embodiments, access control may beprovided by assigning a serial number to the remote device and providingthis number confidentially to the battery owner or operator to log into.

Voltage, temperature and time data stored in a cloud-based system may bepresented in various displays to convey information about the status ofa battery, its condition, its operating requirement(s), unusual orabnormal conditions, and/or the like. In one embodiment, data from onebattery or group of batteries may be analyzed to provide additionalinformation, or correlated with data from other batteries, groups ofbatteries, or exogenous conditions to provide additional information.

Systems and methods disclosed herein provide an economical means formonitoring the performance and health of batteries located anywhere inthe cellular radio or Internet connected world. As battery monitorcircuits 120 rely on only voltage, temperature and time data to perform(or enable performance of) these functions, cost is significantly lessthan various prior art systems which must monitor battery current aswell. Further, performance of calculations and analyses in a remotedevice, which is capable of receiving voltage, temperature and time datafrom a plurality of monitoring circuits connected to a plurality ofbatteries, rather than performing these functions at each battery in theplurality of batteries, minimizes the per battery cost to monitor anyone battery, analyze its performance and health, and display the resultsof such analyses. This allows effective monitoring of batteries,critical to various operations but heretofore not monitored because aneffective remote monitoring system was unavailable and/or the cost tomonitor batteries locally and collect data manually was prohibitive.Example systems allow aggregated remote monitoring of batteries in suchexample applications as industrial motive power (forklifts, scissorlifts, tractors, pumps and lights, etc.), low speed electric vehicles(neighborhood electric vehicles, electric golf carts, electric bikes,scooters, skateboards, etc.), grid power backup power supplies(computers, emergency lighting, and critical loads remotely located),marine applications (engine starting batteries, onboard power supplies),automotive applications, and/or other example applications (for example,engine starting batteries, over-the-road truck and recreational vehicleonboard power, and the like). This aggregated remote monitoring of likeand/or disparate batteries in like and/or disparate applications allowsthe analysis of battery performance and health (e.g., batterystate-of-charge, battery reserve time, battery operating mode, adversethermal conditions, and so forth), that heretofore was not possible.Using contemporaneous voltage and temperature data, stored voltage andtemperature data, and/or battery and application specific parameters(but excluding data regarding battery 100/200 current), the short termchanges in voltage and/or temperature, longer term changes in voltageand/or temperature, and thresholds for voltage and/or temperature may beused singularly or in combination to conduct exemplary analyses, such asin the battery monitor circuit 120, the locally located remote device414, the computer 424, and/or any suitable device. The results of theseanalyses, and actions taken in response thereto, can increase batteryperformance, improve battery safety and reduce battery operating costs.

While many of the embodiments herein have focused on electrochemicalcell(s) which are lead-acid type electrochemical cells, in otherembodiments the electrochemical cells may be of various chemistries,including but not limited to, lithium, nickel, cadmium, sodium and zinc.In such embodiments, the battery monitor circuit and/or the remotedevice may be configured to perform calculations and analyses pertinentto that specific battery chemistry.

In some example embodiments, via application of principles of thepresent disclosure, outlier batteries can be identified and alerts ornotices provided by the battery monitor circuit 120 and/or the remotedevice to prompt action for maintaining and securing the batteries. Thebatteries 100/200 may be made by different manufacturers, made usingdifferent types of construction or different types of cells. However,where multiple batteries 100/200 are constructed in similar manner andare situated in similar environmental conditions, the system may beconfigured to identify outlier batteries, for example batteries that arereturning different and/or suspect temperature and/or voltage data. Thisoutlier data may be used to identify failing batteries or to identifylocal conditions (high load, or the like) and to provide alerts ornotices for maintaining and securing such batteries. Similarly,batteries 100/200 in disparate applications or from disparatemanufacturers can be compared to determine which battery types and/ormanufacturers products perform best in any particular application.

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 and/or theremote device may be configured to analyze the data and take actions,send notifications, and make determinations based on the data. Thebattery monitor circuit 120 and/or the remote device may be configuredto show a present temperature for each battery 100/200 and/or a presentvoltage for each battery 100/200. Moreover, this information can beshown with the individual measurements grouped by temperature or voltageranges, for example for prompting maintenance and safety actions byproviding notification of batteries that are outside of a pre-determinedrange(s) or close to being outside of such range.

Moreover, the battery monitor circuit 120 and/or the remote device candisplay the physical location of each battery 100/200 (as determined bythe battery monitor circuit 120) for providing inventory management ofthe batteries or for securing the batteries. In one exemplaryembodiment, the physical location information is determined by thebattery monitor circuit 120 using a cellular network. Alternatively,this information can be provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS)via a GPS receiver installed in the battery monitor circuit 120. Thislocation information can be stored with the voltage, temperature, andtime data. In another exemplary embodiment, the location data is sharedwirelessly with the remote device, and the remote device is configuredto store the location data. The location data may be stored inconjunction with the time, to create a travel history (location history)for the monobloc that reflects where the monobloc or battery has beenover time.

Moreover, the remote device can be configured to create and/or sendnotifications based on the data. For example, a notification can bedisplayed if, based on analysis in the battery monitor circuit and/orthe remote device a specific monobloc is over voltage, the notificationcan identify the specific monobloc that is over voltage, and the systemcan prompt maintenance action. Notifications may be sent via anysuitable system or means, for example via e-mail, SMS message, telephonecall, in-application prompt, or the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, where the battery monitor circuit 120 hasbeen connected to a battery 100/200, the system provides inventory andmaintenance services for the battery 100/200. For example, the systemmay be configured to detect the presence of a monobloc or battery instorage or transit, without touching the monobloc or battery. Thebattery monitor circuit 120 can be configured, in an exemplaryembodiment, for inventory tracking in a warehouse. In one exemplaryembodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 transmits location data tothe locally located remote device 414 and/or a remotely located remotedevice and back-end system configured to identify when a specificbattery 100/200 has left the warehouse or truck, for exampleunexpectedly. This may be detected, for example, when battery monitorcircuit 120 associated with the battery 100/200 ceases to communicatevoltage and/or temperature data with the locally located remote device414 and/or back end system, when the battery location is no longer wherenoted in a location database, or when the wired connection between themonobloc or battery and the battery monitor circuit 120 is otherwisesevered. The remote back end system is configured, in an exemplaryembodiment, to trigger an alert that a battery may have been stolen. Theremote back end system may be configured to trigger an alert that abattery is in the process of being stolen, for example as successivemonoblocs in a battery stop (or lose) communication or stop reportingvoltage and temperature information. In an exemplary embodiment, whereinthe battery monitor circuit 120 is configured with Bluetoothcommunications and connected by wire to a battery, the battery monitorcircuit 120 may be configured to identify if the battery 100/200 leavesa warehouse unexpectedly and, in that event, to send an alarm, alert, ornotification. In another embodiment wherein the battery monitor circuit120 communicates via a cellular network with a remote device, the actuallocation of the battery can be tracked and a notification generated ifthe battery travels outside a predefined geo-fenced area. These variousembodiments of theft detection and inventory tracking are unique ascompared to prior approaches, for example, because they can occur atgreater distance than RFID type querying of individual objects, and thuscan reflect the presence of objects that are not readily observable(e.g., inventory stacked in multiple layers on shelves or pallets) whereRFID would not be able to provide similar functionality.

In some exemplary embodiments, the remote device (e.g., the locallylocated remote device 414) is configured to remotely receive dataregarding the voltage and temperature of each battery 100/200. In anexemplary embodiment, the remote device is configured to remotelyreceive voltage, temperature, and time data from each battery monitorcircuit 120 associated with each battery 100/200 of a plurality ofbatteries. These batteries may, for example, be inactive ornon-operational. For example, these batteries may not yet have beeninstalled in an application, connected to a load, or put in service. Thesystem may be configured to determine which batteries need re-charging.These batteries may or may not be contained in shipping packaging.However, because the data is received and the determination is maderemotely, the packaged batteries do not need to be unpackaged to receivethis data or make the determination. So long as a battery monitorcircuit 120 has been attached to these batteries, these batteries may belocated in a warehouse, in a storage facility, on a shelf, or on apallet, but the data can be received and the determination made withoutunpacking, unstacking, touching or moving any of the plurality ofbatteries. These batteries may even be in transit, such as on a truck orin a shipping container, and the data can be received and thedetermination made during such transit. Thereafter, at an appropriatetime, for example upon unpacking a pallet, the battery or batteriesneeding re-charging may be identified and charged.

In a further exemplary embodiment, the process of “checking” a batterymay be described herein as receiving voltage data and temperature data(and potentially, time data) associated with a battery, and presentinginformation to a user based on this data, wherein the informationpresented is useful for making a determination or assessment about thebattery. In an exemplary embodiment, the remote device is configured toremotely “check” each battery 100/200 of a plurality of batteriesequipped with battery monitor circuit 120. In this exemplary embodiment,the remote device can receive wireless signals from each of theplurality of batteries 100/200, and check the voltage and temperature ofeach battery 100/200. Thus, in these exemplary embodiments, the remotedevice can be used to quickly interrogate a pallet of batteries that areawaiting shipment to determine if any battery needs to be re-charged,how long until a particular battery will need to be re-charged, or ifany state of health issues are apparent in a particular battery, allwithout un-packaging or otherwise touching the pallet of batteries. Thischecking can be performed, for example, without scanning, pinging,moving or individually interrogating the packaging or batteries, butrather based on the battery monitor circuit 120 associated with eachbattery 100/200 wirelessly reporting the data to the remote device(e.g., 414/424).

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery 100/200 is configured toidentify itself electronically. For example, the battery 100/200 may beconfigured to communicate a unique electronic identifier (unique serialnumber, or the like) from the battery monitor circuit 120 to the remotedevice, the cellular network 418, or the locally located remote device414. This serial number may be correlated with a visible batteryidentifier (e.g., label, barcode, QR code, serial number, or the like)visible on the outside of the battery, or electronically visible bymeans of a reader capable of identifying a single battery in a group ofbatteries. Therefore, the system 400 may be configured to associatebattery data from a specific battery with a unique identifier of thatspecific battery. Moreover, during installation of a monobloc with abattery monitor circuit 120 attached (for example, battery 100) in abattery 200, an installer may enter into a database associated withsystem 400 various information about the monobloc, for example relativeposition (e.g., what battery, what string, what position on a shelf, theorientation of a cabinet, etc.). Similar information may be entered intoa database regarding a battery 100.

Thus, if the data indicates a battery of interest (for example, one thatis performing subpar, overheating, discharged, etc.), that particularbattery can be singled out for any appropriate action. Stated anotherway, a user can receive information about a specific battery (identifiedby the unique electronic identifier), and go directly to that battery(identified by the visible battery identifier) to attend to any needs itmay have (perform “maintenance”). For example, this maintenance mayinclude removing the identified battery from service, repairing theidentified battery, charging the identified battery, etc. In a specificexemplary embodiment, a battery 100/200 may be noted as needing to bere-charged, a warehouse employee could scan the batteries on the shelvesin the warehouse (e.g., scanning a QR code on each battery 100/200) tofind the battery of interest and then recharge it. In another exemplaryembodiment, as the batteries are moved to be shipped, and the packagecontaining the battery moves along a conveyor, past a reader, thelocally located remote device 414 can be configured to retrieve the dataon that specific battery, including the unique electronic identifier,voltage and temperature, and alert if some action needs to be taken withrespect to it (e.g., if the battery needs to be recharged beforeshipment).

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 itself, theremote device and/or any suitable storage device can be configured tostore the battery operation history of the individual battery 100/200through more than one phase of the battery's life. In an exemplaryembodiment, the history of the battery can be recorded. In an exemplaryembodiment, the battery may further record data after it is integratedinto a product or placed in service (alone or in a battery). The batterymay record data after it is retired, reused in a second lifeapplication, and/or until it is eventually recycled or disposed.

Although sometimes described herein as storing this data on the batterymonitor circuit 120, in a specific exemplary embodiment, the historicaldata is stored remotely from the battery monitor circuit 120. Forexample, the data described herein can be stored in one or moredatabases remote from the battery monitor circuit 120 (e.g., in acloud-based storage offering, at a back-end server, at the gateway,and/or on one or more remote devices).

The system 400 may be configured to store, during one or more of theaforementioned time periods, the history of how the battery has beenoperated, the environmental conditions in which it has been operated,and/or the society it has kept with other batteries, as may bedetermined based on the data stored during these time periods. Forexample, the remote device may be configured to store the identity ofother batteries that were electrically associated with the battery100/200, such as if two batteries are used together in one application.This shared society information may be based on the above describedunique electronic identifier and data identifying where (geographically)the battery is located. The remote device may further store when thebatteries shared in a particular operation.

This historical information, and the analyses that are performed usingit, can be based solely on the voltage, temperature and time data.Stated another way, current data is not utilized. As used herein, “time”may include the date, hour, minute, and/or second of avoltage/temperature measurement. In another exemplary embodiment, “time”may mean the amount of time that the voltage/temperature conditionexisted. In particular, the history is not based on data derived fromthe charge and discharge currents associated with the battery(s). Thisis particularly significant because it would be very prohibitive toconnect to and include a sensor to measure the current for each andevery monobloc, and an associated time each was sensed from theindividual battery, where there is a large number of monoblocs.

In various exemplary embodiments, system 400 (and/or components thereof)may be in communication with an external battery management system (BMS)coupled one or more batteries 100/200, for example over a common networksuch as the Internet. System 400 may communicate information regardingone or more batteries 100/200 to the BMS and the BMS may take action inresponse thereto, for example by controlling or modifying current intoand/or out of one or more batteries 100/200, in order to protectbatteries 100/200.

In an exemplary embodiment, in contrast to past solutions, the system isconfigured to store contemporaneous voltage and/or contemporaneoustemperature data relative to geographically dispersed batteries. This isa significant improvement over past solutions where there is nocontemporaneous voltage and/or contemporaneous temperature dataavailable on multiple monoblocs or batteries located in differentlocations and operating in different conditions. Thus, in the exemplaryembodiment, historical voltage and temperature data is used to assessthe condition of the monoblocs or batteries and/or make predictionsabout and comparisons of the future condition of the monobloc orbattery.

In an exemplary embodiment, the battery monitor circuit 120 is locatedsuch that it is viewable/accessible from the outside of battery 100/200.In another example, battery monitor circuit 120 is located external tothe battery 100/200 in a location that will measure the externaltemperature of the battery 100/200. For example, the battery monitorcircuit 120 may measure the temperature in between two or moremonoblocs, the outer casing temperature of a monobloc, or the airtemperature in a battery containing multiple monoblocs.

With reference now to FIG. 4C, in various exemplary embodiments abattery 100/200 having a battery monitor circuit 120 coupled thereto maybe coupled to a load and/or to a power supply. For example, battery100/200 may be coupled to a vehicle to provide electrical energy formotive power. Additionally and/or alternatively, battery 100/200 may becoupled to a solar panel to provide a charging current for battery100/200. Moreover, in various applications battery 100/200 may becoupled to an electrical grid. It will be appreciated that the natureand number of systems and/or components to which battery 100/200 iscoupled may impact desired approaches for monitoring of battery 100/200,for example via application of various methods, algorithms, and/ortechniques as described herein. Yet further, in various applications andmethods disclosed herein, battery 100/200 is not coupled to any externalload or a charging source, but is disconnected (for example, whensitting in storage in a warehouse).

For example, various systems and methods may utilize informationspecific to the characteristics of battery 100/200 and/or the specificapplication in which battery 100/200 is operating. For example, battery100/200 and application specific characteristics may include themanufacture date, the battery capacity, and recommended operatingparameters such as voltage and temperature limits. In an exampleembodiment, battery and application specific characteristics may be thechemistry of battery 100/200—e.g., absorptive glass mat lead acid,gelled electrolyte lead acid, flooded lead acid, lithium manganeseoxide, lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, lithium nickelmanganese cobalt, lithium cobalt aluminum, nickel zinc, zinc air, nickelmetal hydride, nickel cadmium, and/or the like.

In an example embodiment, battery specific characteristics may be thebattery manufacturer, model number, battery capacity in ampere-hours(Ah), nominal voltage, float voltage, state of charge v. open circuitvoltage, state of charge, voltage on load, and/or equalized voltage, andso forth. Moreover, the characteristics can be any suitable specificcharacteristic of battery 100/200.

In various exemplary embodiments, application specific characteristicsmay identify the application as a cellular radio base station, anelectric forklift, an e-bike, and/or the like. More generally,application specific characteristics may distinguish betweengrid-coupled applications and mobile applications.

In various example embodiments, information characterizing battery100/200 can be input by: manually typing the information: into asoftware program running on a mobile device, into a web interfacepresented by a server to a computer or mobile device, or any othersuitable manual data entry method. In other example embodiments,information characterizing battery 100/200 can be selected from a menuor checklist (e.g., selecting the supplier or model of a battery from amenu). In other example embodiments, information can be received byscanning a QR code on the battery. In other example embodiments,information characterizing battery 100/200 can be stored in one or moredatabases (e.g., by the users providing an identifier that links to adatabase storing this information). For example, databases such asDepartment of Motor Vehicles, battery manufacturer and OEM databases,fleet databases, and other suitable databases may have parameters andother information useful for characterizing the application of a batteryor batteries 100/200. Moreover, the characteristics can be any suitableapplication specific characteristic.

In one example embodiment, if battery 100/200 is coupled to batterymonitor circuit 120, battery and application specific characteristicscan be programmed onto the circuitry (e.g., in a battery parameterstable). In this case, these characteristics for each battery 100/200travel with battery 100/200 and can be accessed by any suitable systemperforming the analysis described herein. In another example embodiment,the battery and application specific characteristics can be storedremote from battery 100/200, for example in the remote device. Moreover,any suitable method for receiving information characterizing battery100/200 may be used. In an example embodiment, the information can bestored on a mobile device, on a data collection device (e.g., agateway), or in the cloud. Moreover, exemplary systems and methods maybe further configured to receive, store, and utilize specificcharacteristics related to a battery charger (e.g., chargermanufacturer, model, current output, charge algorithm, and/or the like).

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: temperature data, time data, voltage data, battery locationdata, battery identifier data, and/or like data useful in the operationof the system. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a computermay include an operating system (e.g., Windows offered by MicrosoftCorporation, MacOS and/or iOS offered by Apple Computer, Linux, Unix,and/or the like) as well as various conventional support software anddrivers typically associated with computers.

The present system or certain part(s) or function(s) thereof may beimplemented using hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and maybe implemented in one or more computer systems or other processingsystems. However, the manipulations performed by embodiments were oftenreferred to in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonlyassociated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No suchcapability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases,in any of the operations described herein. Rather, the operations may bemachine operations, or any of the operations may be conducted orenhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning. Usefulmachines for performing certain algorithms of various embodimentsinclude general purpose digital computers or similar devices.

In fact, in various embodiments, the embodiments are directed toward oneor more computer systems capable of carrying out the functionalitydescribed herein. The computer system includes one or more processors,such as a processor for managing monoblocs. The processor is connectedto a communication infrastructure (e.g., a communications bus,cross-over bar, or network). Various software embodiments are describedin terms of this computer system. After reading this description, itwill become apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how toimplement various embodiments using other computer systems and/orarchitectures. A computer system can include a display interface thatforwards graphics, text, and other data from the communicationinfrastructure (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on adisplay unit.

A computer system also includes a main memory, such as for examplerandom access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory orin-memory (non-spinning) hard drives. The secondary memory may include,for example, a hard disk drive and/or a removable storage drive,representing a disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive,etc. The removable storage drive reads from and/or writes to a removablestorage unit in a well-known manner. Removable storage unit represents adisk, magnetic tape, optical disk, solid state memory, etc. which isread by and written to by removable storage drive. As will beappreciated, the removable storage unit includes a computer usablestorage medium having stored therein computer software and/or data.

In various embodiments, secondary memory may include other similardevices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to beloaded into computer system. Such devices may include, for example, aremovable storage unit and an interface. Examples of such may include aprogram cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in videogame devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmableread only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) andassociated socket, and other removable storage units and interfaces,which allow software and data to be transferred from the removablestorage unit to a computer system.

A computer system may also include a communications interface. Acommunications interface allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system and external devices. Examples of communicationsinterface may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernetcard), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory CardInternational Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and datatransferred via communications interface are in the form of signalswhich may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signalscapable of being received by a communications interface. These signalsare provided to communications interface via a communications path(e.g., channel). This channel carries signals and may be implementedusing wire, cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, aradio frequency (RF) link, wireless and other communications channels.

The terms “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” and“computer readable medium” are used to generally refer to media such asremovable storage drive and a hard disk. These computer program productsprovide software to a computer system.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory and/or secondary memory. Computer programs mayalso be received via a communications interface. Such computer programs,when executed, enable the computer system to perform certain features asdiscussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed,enable the processor to perform certain features of various embodiments.Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of thecomputer system.

In various embodiments, software may be stored in a computer programproduct and loaded into computer system using removable storage drive,hard disk drive or communications interface. The control logic(software), when executed by the processor, causes the processor toperform the functions of various embodiments as described herein. Invarious embodiments, hardware components such as application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs) may be utilized in place of software-basedcontrol logic. Implementation of a hardware state machine so as toperform the functions described herein will be apparent to personsskilled in the relevant art(s).

A web client includes any device (e.g., a personal computer) whichcommunicates via any network, for example such as those discussedherein. Such browser applications comprise Internet browsing softwareinstalled within a computing unit or a system to conduct onlinetransactions and/or communications. These computing units or systems maytake the form of a computer or set of computers, although other types ofcomputing units or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks,tablets, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS)devices and/or terminals, televisions, or any other device capable ofreceiving data over a network. A web-client may run Internet Explorer orEdge offered by Microsoft Corporation, Chrome offered by Google, Safarioffered by Apple Computer, or any other of the myriad software packagesavailable for accessing the Internet.

Practitioners will appreciate that a web client may or may not be indirect contact with an application server. For example, a web client mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web client maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer. In variousembodiments, access is through a network or the Internet through acommercially-available web-browser software package.

A web client may implement security protocols such as Secure SocketsLayer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A web client mayimplement several application layer protocols including http, https,ftp, and sftp. Moreover, in various embodiments, components, modules,and/or engines of an example system may be implemented asmicro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-apps are typically deployed inthe context of a mobile operating system, including for example, iOSoffered by Apple Computer, Android offered by Google, Windows Mobileoffered by Microsoft Corporation, and the like. The micro-app may beconfigured to leverage the resources of the larger operating system andassociated hardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern theoperations of various operating systems and hardware resources. Forexample, where a micro-app desires to communicate with a device ornetwork other than the mobile device or mobile operating system, themicro-app may leverage the communication protocol of the operatingsystem and associated device hardware under the predetermined rules ofthe mobile operating system. Moreover, where the micro-app desires aninput from a user, the micro-app may be configured to request a responsefrom the operating system which monitors various hardware components andthen communicates a detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

As used herein an “identifier” may be any suitable identifier thatuniquely identifies an item, for example a battery 100/200. For example,the identifier may be a globally unique identifier.

As used herein, the term “network” includes any cloud, cloud computingsystem or electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device, smartphone, cellularphone, kiosk, etc.), online communications, satellite communications,off-line communications, wireless communications, transpondercommunications, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN),virtual private network (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard,mouse and/or any suitable communication or data input modality.Moreover, although the system is frequently described herein as beingimplemented with TCP/IP communications protocols, the system may also beimplemented using IPX, APPLE® talk, IP-6, NetBIOS®, OSI, any tunnelingprotocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or any number of existing or futureprotocols. If the network is in the nature of a public network, such asthe Internet, it may be advantageous to presume the network to beinsecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specific information related to theprotocols, standards, and application software utilized in connectionwith the Internet is generally known to those skilled in the art and, assuch, need not be detailed herein. See, for example, Dilip Naik,Internet Standards and Protocols (1998); JAVA® 2 Complete, variousauthors, (Sybex 1999); Deborah Ray and Eric Ray, Mastering HTML 4.0(1997); and Loshin, TCP/IP Clearly Explained (1997) and David Gourleyand Brian Totty, HTTP, The Definitive Guide (2002), the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference (except for any subjectmatter disclaimers or disavowals, and except to the extent that theincorporated material is inconsistent with the express disclosureherein, in which case the language in this disclosure controls). Thevarious system components may be independently, separately orcollectively suitably coupled to the network via data links.

“Cloud” or “cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computingavailable at https://doi.org/10.66028/NIST.SP.800-145 (last visited July2018), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, blockchain, object-oriented structure and/or any otherdatabase configurations. Common database products that may be used toimplement the databases include DB2 by IBM® (Armonk, N.Y.), variousdatabase products available from ORACLE® Corporation (Redwood Shores,Calif.), MICROSOFT® Access® or MICROSOFT® SQL Server® by MICROSOFT®Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden),MongoDB®, Redis®, Apache Cassandra®, HBase by APACHE®, MapR-DB, or anyother suitable database product. Moreover, the databases may beorganized in any suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookuptables. Each record may be a single file, a series of files, a linkedseries of data fields or any other data structure.

Any database discussed herein may comprise a distributed ledgermaintained by a plurality of computing devices (e.g., nodes) over apeer-to-peer network. Each computing device maintains a copy and/orpartial copy of the distributed ledger and communicates with one or moreother computing devices in the network to validate and write data to thedistributed ledger. The distributed ledger may use features andfunctionality of blockchain technology, including, for example,consensus based validation, immutability, and cryptographically chainedblocks of data. The blockchain may comprise a ledger of interconnectedblocks containing data. The blockchain may provide enhanced securitybecause each block may hold individual transactions and the results ofany blockchain executables. Each block may link to the previous blockand may include a timestamp. Blocks may be linked because each block mayinclude the hash of the prior block in the blockchain. The linked blocksform a chain, with only one successor block allowed to link to one otherpredecessor block for a single chain. Forks may be possible wheredivergent chains are established from a previously uniform blockchain,though typically only one of the divergent chains will be maintained asthe consensus chain. In various embodiments, the blockchain mayimplement smart contracts that enforce data workflows in a decentralizedmanner. The system may also include applications deployed on userdevices such as, for example, computers, tablets, smartphones, Internetof Things devices (“IoT” devices), etc. The applications may communicatewith the blockchain (e.g., directly or via a blockchain node) totransmit and retrieve data. In various embodiments, a governingorganization or consortium may control access to data stored on theblockchain. Registration with the managing organization(s) may enableparticipation in the blockchain network.

Data transfers performed through the blockchain-based system maypropagate to the connected peers within the blockchain network within aduration that may be determined by the block creation time of thespecific blockchain technology implemented. The system also offersincreased security at least partially due to the relative immutablenature of data that is stored in the blockchain, reducing theprobability of tampering with various data inputs and outputs. Moreover,the system may also offer increased security of data by performingcryptographic processes on the data prior to storing the data on theblockchain. Therefore, by transmitting, storing, and accessing datausing the system described herein, the security of the data is improved,which decreases the risk of the computer or network from beingcompromised.

In various embodiments, the system may also reduce databasesynchronization errors by providing a common data structure, thus atleast partially improving the integrity of stored data. The system alsooffers increased reliability and fault tolerance over traditionaldatabases (e.g., relational databases, distributed databases, etc.) aseach node operates with a full copy of the stored data, thus at leastpartially reducing downtime due to localized network outages andhardware failures. The system may also increase the reliability of datatransfers in a network environment having reliable and unreliable peers,as each node broadcasts messages to all connected peers, and, as eachblock comprises a link to a previous block, a node may quickly detect amissing block and propagate a request for the missing block to the othernodes in the blockchain network.

Principles of the present disclosure may be combined with and/orutilized in connection with principles disclosed in other applications.For example, principles of the present disclosure may be combined withprinciples disclosed in: U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018and entitled “BATTERY WITH INTERNAL MONITORING SYSTEM”; U.S. Ser. No.______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORDETERMINING A STATE OF CHARGE OF A DISCONNECTED BATTERY”; U.S. Ser. No.______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORUTILIZING BATTERY OPERATING DATA”; U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul.______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR UTILIZING BATTERYOPERATING DATA AND EXOGENOUS DATA”; U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul.______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING CRANKHEALTH OF A BATTERY”; U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018and entitled “OPERATING CONDITIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR AN ENERGYSTORAGE DEVICE”; U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 andentitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING A RESERVE TIME OF AMONOBLOC”; U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING AN OPERATING MODE OF A BATTERY”;U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMSAND METHODS FOR DETERMINING A STATE OF CHARGE OF A BATTERY”; U.S. Ser.No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODSFOR MONITORING AND PRESENTING BATTERY INFORMATION”; U.S. Ser. No. ______filed on Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORDETERMINING A HEALTH STATUS OF A MONOBLOC”; U.S. Ser. No. ______ filedon Jul. ______, 2018 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTINGBATTERY THEFT”; and U.S. Ser. No. ______ filed on Jul. ______, 2018 andentitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING THERMAL RUNAWAY OF ABATTERY”. The contents of each of the foregoing applications are herebyincorporated by reference.

In an exemplary embodiment, a system for monitoring battery datacomprises a plurality of batteries, each battery of the plurality ofbatteries comprising a plurality of monoblocs; a plurality of batterymonitor circuits, wherein each of the plurality of batteries iselectrically connected to a respective battery monitor circuit of theplurality of battery monitor circuits, and wherein each respectivebattery monitor circuit of the plurality of battery monitor circuits islocated external to the respective battery and comprises: a voltagesensor for connecting electrically to the battery, for monitoring avoltage between a positive terminal and a negative terminal (theterminals) of the battery; a temperature sensor for monitoring atemperature of the battery; a processor for receiving a monitoredvoltage signal from the voltage sensor, for receiving a monitoredtemperature signal from the temperature sensor, for processing themonitored voltage signal and the monitored temperature signal, and forgenerating voltage data and temperature data based on the monitoredvoltage signal and the monitored temperature signal; a memory forstoring the voltage data and the temperature data (“output data”),wherein the voltage data represents the voltage across the terminals ofthe battery, and wherein the temperature data represents the temperatureof the battery and such voltage and temperature data are associated withstored data representative of a time during which the data was monitoredfrom the battery; an antenna; and a transmitter for wirelesslycommunicating the output data to a remote device, via the antenna. Thesystem further comprises the remote device for receiving the output datafrom each of the plurality of batteries, wherein the remote deviceutilizes the voltage data and the temperature data to make at least onedetermination, based only on the voltage data and the temperature data,about the operation of the battery.

The remote device may be configured to receive the output data from theplurality of batteries and record a location of each of the plurality ofbatteries, and the output data of each of the plurality of batteries;wherein the remote device is configured to display a location, voltage,and temperature history for one or more of the plurality of batteriesand provide notifications, via local displays, SMS text, e-mail,cellular calls or other remote communications means, that an abnormalcondition exists with the battery or its operation. At least one of theprocessor and the remote device may be configured forassessing/predicting a battery condition based on historical outputdata, gathered under real time operating conditions, over time, whilethe battery is in operation, wherein the system does not comprise atesting apparatus, does not apply an artificial load, and does not usecurrent to make the assessment/prediction. The at least onedetermination may comprise a determination of at least one of thefollowing: Operating mode, Battery health, State of charge, Time torecharge, Remaining life, Operating time, Discharge duration, Dischargedepth, Battery performance, Battery theft, Battery stress, Batterywarranty, Battery abuse, Battery Location, or Alerts (Charge required,Over discharge, Under charge, Over charge, Under temperature, OverTemperature). Moreover, the at least one determination may comprise adetermination of at least one of the following: Operating mode, Batteryhealth, State of charge, Time to recharge, Remaining life, Operatingtime, Discharge duration, Discharge depth, Battery performance, Batterytheft, Battery stress, Battery warranty, Battery abuse, BatteryLocation, Alerts (Charge required, Over discharge, Under charge, Overcharge, Under temperature, Over Temperature) in the remote devicecomprising a cloud connected server displaying the results of suchdeterminations in a manner that such results and the output data fromwhich they are derived are available over the Internet for viewing anddownloading anywhere in the connected world.

In describing the present disclosure, the following terminology will beused: The singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referentsunless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example,reference to an item includes reference to one or more items. The term“ones” refers to one, two, or more, and generally applies to theselection of some or all of a quantity. The term “plurality” refers totwo or more of an item. The term “about” means quantities, dimensions,sizes, formulations, parameters, shapes and other characteristics neednot be exact, but may be approximated and/or larger or smaller, asdesired, reflecting acceptable tolerances, conversion factors, roundingoff, measurement error and the like and other factors known to those ofskill in the art. The term “substantially” means that the recitedcharacteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, butthat deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances,measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factorsknown to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do notpreclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.Numerical data may be expressed or presented herein in a range format.It is to be understood that such a range format is used merely forconvenience and brevity and thus should be interpreted flexibly toinclude not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limitsof the range, but also interpreted to include all of the individualnumerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if eachnumerical value and sub-range is explicitly recited. As an illustration,a numerical range of “about 1 to 5” should be interpreted to include notonly the explicitly recited values of about 1 to about 5, but alsoinclude individual values and sub-ranges within the indicated range.Thus, included in this numerical range are individual values such as 2,3 and 4 and sub-ranges such as 1-3, 2-4 and 3-5, etc. This sameprinciple applies to ranges reciting only one numerical value (e.g.,“greater than about 1”) and should apply regardless of the breadth ofthe range or the characteristics being described. A plurality of itemsmay be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these listsshould be construed as though each member of the list is individuallyidentified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no individual memberof such list should be construed as a de facto equivalent of any othermember of the same list solely based on their presentation in a commongroup without indications to the contrary. Furthermore, where the terms“and” and “or” are used in conjunction with a list of items, they are tobe interpreted broadly, in that any one or more of the listed items maybe used alone or in combination with other listed items. The term“alternatively” refers to selection of one of two or more alternatives,and is not intended to limit the selection to only those listedalternatives or to only one of the listed alternatives at a time, unlessthe context clearly indicates otherwise.

It should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown anddescribed herein are illustrative and are not intended to otherwiselimit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Furthermore, theconnecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein areintended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physicalcouplings between the various elements. It should be noted that manyalternative or additional functional relationships or physicalconnections may be present in a practical device or system.

It should be understood, however, that the detailed description andspecific examples, while indicating exemplary embodiments, are given forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. Many changes andmodifications within the scope of the present disclosure may be madewithout departing from the spirit thereof, and the scope of thisdisclosure includes all such modifications. The correspondingstructures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all elements in theclaims below are intended to include any structure, material, or actsfor performing the functions in combination with other claimed elementsas specifically claimed. The scope should be determined by the appendedclaims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples givenabove. For example, the operations recited in any method claims may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented in theclaims. Moreover, no element is essential unless specifically describedherein as “critical” or “essential.”

Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’ or ‘atleast one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification, it isintended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone may bepresent in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C.

What is claimed is:
 1. A battery monitor circuit for monitoring abattery, the battery monitor circuit located external to the battery andwired electrically to the battery, the battery monitor circuitcomprising: a voltage sensor for connecting electrically to the batteryfor monitoring a voltage between a positive terminal and a negativeterminal of the battery, wherein the battery comprises a single monoblocor a plurality of monoblocs that are electrically connected in series orparallel, and wherein each monobloc comprises at least oneelectrochemical cell; a temperature sensor for monitoring a temperatureof the battery; a processor for receiving a monitored voltage signalfrom the voltage sensor, for receiving a monitored temperature signalfrom the temperature sensor, for processing the monitored voltage signaland the monitored temperature signal, and for generating voltage dataand temperature data based on the monitored voltage signal and themonitored temperature signal; a memory for storing the voltage data andthe temperature data, wherein the voltage data represents the voltagebetween the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the battery,and wherein the temperature data represents a temperature of thebattery; an antenna; and a transmitter for wirelessly communicating thevoltage data and the temperature data to a remote device via theantenna.
 2. The battery monitor circuit of claim 1, wherein the at leastone lead-acid electrochemical cell is configured as at least one of aflooded (vented) type of design, an absorbent glass mat (AGM) type ofdesign, or a gel type of design.
 3. The battery monitor circuit of claim1, wherein the battery monitor circuit further comprises a geo-locationdevice for identifying a location of the battery, and representing thelocation of the battery with battery location data.
 4. The batterymonitor circuit of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured toanalyze the voltage data and the temperature data and generateinformation derived from the voltage data and the temperature data. 5.The battery monitor circuit of claim 1, wherein the voltage sensor iselectrically connected to the battery by connecting a first lead fromthe battery monitor circuit to the positive terminal and a second leadfrom the battery monitor circuit to the negative terminal.
 6. Thebattery monitor circuit of claim 1, wherein the temperature sensor islocated to sense a temperature of the battery at a location external tothe battery.
 7. The battery monitor circuit of claim 1, wherein thetransmitter comprises at least one of a WiFi transmitter, a Bluetoothtransmitter, or a cellular radio modem.
 8. The battery monitor circuitof claim 1, wherein the memory contains operating history of the batteryin a battery operating history matrix, and wherein the battery operatinghistory matrix comprises: a plurality of columns, each columnrepresenting a voltage range of the battery; and a plurality of rows,each row representing a temperature range of the battery, wherein anumerical value in a cell of the battery operating history matrixrepresents a cumulative amount of time that the battery has been in aparticular state corresponding to the voltage range and the temperaturerange for that cell.
 9. The battery monitor circuit of claim 8, wherein,during operation of the battery monitor circuit, the memory storesinformation corresponding to the cumulative amount of time that thebattery is in each of the plurality of states represented by the batteryoperating history matrix over a time period for which the batterymonitor circuit is electrically connected to the battery, therebycharacterizing the entire connected life of the battery, withoutincreasing the storage space in the memory occupied by the batteryoperating history matrix.
 10. The battery monitor circuit of claim 9,wherein the remote device further comprises a remote display system,remote from the battery, for displaying a location history and a batteryoperation history of the battery.
 11. The battery monitor circuit ofclaim 1, wherein the remote device further comprises a display systemremote from the battery, and wherein the display system providesnotification of possible theft of the battery (i) when the batterymonitor circuit ceases to communicate the voltage data and thetemperature data when expected, or (ii) when the battery monitor circuitindicates, via wireless transmission to the remote device, that thebattery has traveled outside a predetermined geo-fenced area.
 12. Anintelligent energy storage system, comprising: a plurality of batteries,each battery electrically connected to a respective battery monitorcircuit disposed externally to the battery, wherein a first portion ofthe plurality of batteries are remotely dispersed from a second portionof the plurality of batteries, and wherein the plurality of batteriesare associated with at least one remote device for remotely receiving,via wireless data transmission, voltage data and temperature data fromeach of the plurality of batteries; and a remote display for receivingdata, information, and notifications from the remote device and forproviding notifications associated with the plurality of batteries basedon analysis of the voltage data and the temperature data received by theremote device from the first portion of the plurality of batteries andthe second portion of the plurality of batteries.
 13. A method ofremotely monitoring a battery, the method comprising: sensing, using abattery monitor circuit disposed externally to the battery and coupledto a positive terminal and a negative terminal of the battery, a voltageof the battery with a voltage sensor; recording the voltage and atimestamp for the voltage in a storage medium of the battery monitorcircuit; sensing, via a temperature sensor of the battery monitorcircuit, a temperature of the battery; recording the temperature and atimestamp for the temperature in the storage medium; generating, using aprocessor of the battery monitor circuit, voltage data and temperaturedata based on the recorded voltage and the recorded temperature; andwirelessly transmitting, using a transceiver of the battery monitorcircuit, the voltage data, the temperature data, the voltage timestamp,and the temperature timestamp recorded in the storage medium(collectively, “battery operating data”) to a remote device.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising utilizing, by the remote device,the battery operating data to assess or predict a condition of thebattery.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the battery monitor circuitdoes not comprise a current sensor, and wherein the utilizing thebattery operating data does not include utilizing current informationfor the battery.
 16. The method of claim 13, further comprisinggenerating, by the processor and in the storage medium, a batteryoperating history matrix representing the condition of the battery overa period of time that the battery monitor circuit is connected to thebattery.
 17. The method of claim 13, further comprising: recording, bythe battery monitor circuit, position information for the battery aspart of the battery operating data; and wirelessly transmitting theposition information to the remote device.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein the remote device is configured to detect possible theft of thebattery based on (i) cessation of receiving the battery operating datawhen it is expected, or (ii) the battery location monitored by thebattery monitor circuit indicates via wireless transmission to theremote device that the battery has traveled outside a predeterminedgeo-fence.
 19. The method of claim 17, further comprising: receivingbattery operating data, at the remote device, from a plurality ofbatteries; and storing, at the remote device, battery operating data foreach of the plurality of batteries.
 20. The method of claim 19, furthercomprising: evaluating, based on the battery operating data for each ofthe plurality of batteries, a condition of a battery of the plurality ofbatteries; and responsive to the evaluating, taking action comprising atleast one of: replacing the battery with a new battery, replacing thebattery with another of the plurality of batteries, charging thebattery, or discharging the battery.